BATTLE

OF THE
BOOKS
2022-2023
 MIDDLE SCHOOL SELECTIONS

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 Swim Team
by Johnnie Christmas
Bree can't wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith
Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees--until she's stuck with the
only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The
thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet
she's forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears. Lucky
for her, Etta, an elderly occupant of her apartment building and
former swim team captain, is willing to help.

With Etta's training and a lot of hard work, Bree suddenly finds
her swim-crazed community counting on her to turn the school's
failing team around. But that's easier said than done, especially
when their rival, the prestigious Holyoke Prep, has everything
they need to leave the Mighty Manatees in their wake.

Can Bree defy the odds and guide her team to a state
championship, or have the Manatees swum their last lap--for
good?
 Falling Short
by Ernesto Cisnero
A novel about two best friends who must rely on each other
in unexpected ways.

Isaac and Marco already know sixth grade is going to change

their lives. But it won't change things at home--not without
each other's help.

This year, star basketball player Isaac plans on finally

keeping up with his schoolwork. Better grades will surely
stop Isaac's parents from arguing all the time. Meanwhile,
straight-A Marco vows on finally winning his father's
approval by earning a spot on the school's basketball team.

But will their friendship and support for each other be

enough to keep the two boys from falling short?
 Golden Girl
by Reem Faruqi
A coming-of-age middle grade novel in verse about seventh grader
Aafiyah Qamar, a Pakistani American girl who hatches a special plan
to help her family but finds that doing what's right isn't always easy.

Seventh grader Aafiyah loves playing tennis, reading Weird but True
facts, and hanging out with her best friend, Zaina. However, Aafiyah
has a bad habit that troubles her--she's drawn to pretty things and
can't help but occasionally "borrow" them.

But when her father is falsely accused of a crime he hasn't

committed and gets taken in by authorities, Aafiyah knows she
needs to do something to help. When she brainstorms a way to
bring her father back, she turns to her Weird but True facts and
devises the perfect plan.

But what if her plan means giving in to her bad habit, the one she's
been trying to stop? Aafiyah wants to reunite her family but finds
that maybe her plan isn't so perfect after all. . .
 The Accidental Apprentice
by Amanda Foody
The last thing Barclay Thorne ever wanted was an adventure.

Thankfully, as an apprentice to the town’s mushroom farmer, Barclay

need only work hard and follow the rules to one day become the head
mushroom farmer himself. No danger required. But then Barclay
accidentally breaks his town’s most sacred rule: never ever EVER stray
into the Woods, for within the Woods lurk vicious magical Beasts.

To Barclay’s horror, he faces a fate far worse than being eaten: he

unwittingly bonds with a Beast and is run out of town by an angry
mob. Determined to break this bond and return home, Barclay
journeys to find the mysterious town of Lore Keepers, people who have
also bonded with Beasts and share their powers.

But after making new friends, entering a dangerous apprenticeship

exam, and even facing the legendary Beast of the Woods, Barclay must
make a difficult choice: return to the home and rules he’s always
known, or embrace the adventure awaiting him.
 Alone
by Megan E. Freeman
When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret
sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a
nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been
mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or

internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her
only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the
books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust
her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place
that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild

animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing
loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to
survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her
life?
 The Last Cuentista
by Donna Barbra Higuera
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more
than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet,

and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among
them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a
new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human
race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the
discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A
sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent
on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically
purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them,
any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler
by E.L. Konigsburg
Winner of the 1968 Newbery Medal

When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would
be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia
appreciation. And she would go in comfort - she would live at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her
brother Jamie to go, mostly because he was a miser and would have
money.

Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie had some ideas, too; so the two
took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of
settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just
the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the
Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she had discovered its
maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.

The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her
- well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
 Answers in the Pages
by David Levithan
A bold, timely novel about speaking up and coming out as parents lobby to
ban a beloved book from the school curriculum by New York Times-
bestselling author David Levithan.

When Donovan left his copy of The Adventurers on the kitchen counter, he
didn't think his mom would read it--much less have a problem with it. It's
just an adventure novel about two characters trying to stop an evil
genius...right?

But soon the entire town is freaking out about whether the book's main
characters are gay, Donovan's mom is trying to get the book removed from
the school curriculum, and Donovan is caught in the middle.

Donovan doesn't really know if the two boys fall in love at the end or not--
but he does know this: even if they do, it shouldn't matter. The book
should not be banned from school.

Interweaving three connected storylines, David Levithan delivers a bold,

fun, and timely story about taking action (whether it's against book
censors or deadly alligators...), being brave, and standing up for what's
right.
 Scythe
by Neal Shusterman
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no
misery. Humanity has conquered all those things,
and has even conquered death. Now scythes are
the only ones who can end life—and they are
commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of
the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a

scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens
must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that
the consequence of failure could mean losing
their own.
 The Golden Hour
by Niki Smith
From the author of The Deep & Dark Blue comes a tender graphic
novel, perfect for our time, that gently explores themes of self-
discovery, friendship, healing from tragedy, and hope for a better
tomorrow.

Struggling with anxiety after witnessing a harrowing instance of

gun violence, Manuel Soto copes through photography, using his
cell-phone camera to find anchors that keep him grounded. His
days are a lonely, latchkey monotony until he's teamed with his
classmates, Sebastian and Caysha, for a group project.

Sebastian lives on a grass-fed cattle farm outside of town, and

Manuel finds solace in the open fields and in the antics of the
newborn calf Sebastian is hand-raising. As Manuel aides his new
friends in their preparations for the local county fair, he learns
to open up, confronts his deepest fears, and even finds first
love.
They Called Us Enemy
by George Takei
A graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's
childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during
World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and
America itself.

Long before George Takei braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up
as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his
father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an
uncertain future.

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of

Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one
of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home,
where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind

barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism,
his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way
those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.
 Love is a Revolution
by Renee Watson
From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Renée Watson
comes a new YA--a love story about not only a romantic relationship but how a
girl finds herself and falls in love with who she really is.

When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her
cousin-sister-friend Imani's birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love
with Tye Brown, the MC. He's perfect, except . . . Tye is an activist and is
spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would
rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local
creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in
common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of
themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. As Nala falls deeper into
keeping up her lies and into love, she'll learn all the ways love is hard, and how
self-love is revolutionary.

In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful and get the attention of
the hot guys, the popular girl clique is not shallow but has strong
convictions and substance, and the ultimate love story is not only about
romance but about how to show radical love to the people in your life,
including to yourself.
 Anne of West Philly
by Ivy Noelle Weir
Anne of Green Gables with a twist: in this follow-up to Meg,
Jo, Beth, and Amy and The Secret Garden on 81st Street, this
full-color graphic novel moves Anne Shirley to modern-day
West Philadelphia, where where she finds new friends, new
rivals, and a new family.

When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert decide to foster a

teenage girl for the first time, their lives are changed forever.
Their redheaded foster daughter, Anne Shirley, is in search of
an exciting life and has decided that West Philly is where
she's going to find it. Armed with a big personality and
unstoppable creativity, Anne takes her new home by storm
as she joins the robotics club, makes new friends in Diana and
Gilbert, experiences first love, and turns the ordinary into the
extraordinary. But as Anne starts to get comfortable, she
discovers one thing she wasn't looking for: a family.
 Wretched Waterpark
by Keirsten White
From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes her middle grade
series debut! Part Scooby Doo, part A Series of Unfortunate Events, and entirely
genius! Meet the Sinister-Winterbottom twins, who solve mysteries at increasingly
bizarre summer vacation destinations in the hopes of being reunited with their
parents—or at the very least finally finding a good churro.

Twelve-year-old twins Theodora and Alexander and their older sister Wilhelmina
Sinister-Winterbottom don’t know how they ended up with their Aunt Saffronia for
an entire summer. She’s not exactly well equipped to handle children. The twins
are determined to make it a good vacation, though, so when Aunt Saffronia
suggests a waterpark, they hastily agree.

But Fathoms of Fun is not your typical waterpark. Instead of cabanas, guests rent
mausoleums. The waterslides are gray tongues extending from horrible gargoyle
faces. The few people they encounter are very, very odd. And the owner
disappeared under bizarre circumstances, lost to the Cold, Unknowable Sea—the
wave pool.

When Wil goes missing, rule following, cautious Alexander and competitive,
brave Theo will have to work together to solve the mystery of Fathoms of Fun.
But are they out of their depth?
 New From Here
by Kelly Yang
An Asian American boy fights to keep his family together and stand up to
racism during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.

When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom
makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to
California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to
prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay
for work.

At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His
classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the
virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health
insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the
flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-
things-out problem.

As racism skyrockets during COVID-19, Knox tries to stand up to hate, while

finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you
protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re
oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control, the best
way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness.
City of Dragons: The Awakening
by Jaimal Yogis
Grace and her friends must protect a newly hatched dragon from
mysterious evildoers.

When Grace moves to Hong Kong with her mom and new
stepdad, her biggest concern is making friends at her fancy new
boarding school. But when a mysterious old woman gifts her a
dragon egg during a field trip, Grace discovers that the
wonderful stories of dragons she heard when she was a young
girl might actually be real--especially when the egg hatches
overnight.

The dragon has immense powers that Grace has yet to

understand. And that puts them both in danger from
mysterious forces intent on abusing the dragon's power. And
now it's up to Grace and her school friends to uncover the
sinister plot threatening the entire city!
To Participate:
Get a permission form and
BATTLE
OF THE
turn it in by December 13th.
Read any 3 of the Battle of BOOKS
the Books selections by 2022-2023
January 17, 2023.
Fill out a book info sheet/online form for
each book you read at
www.jtmoorelibrary.weebly.com
If you read at least 3 BOB books and
complete a book information sheet by
January 17, you will be invited to an official
Battle of the Books informational meeting
to finalize your team.
 MAY 8
School Competition! Teams
will compete against each
other to see who knows
these books the best.

MAY 11
The winning team from Moore
will face 29 other teams at a
field trip to Nashville Public
Library. The winning team for all
Middle Schools wins a PRIZE of a
LIMO ride back to school!